Nicole Eisenman & Julie Mehretu
Globally oriented migration, in a visionary-queer-feminist style
Nicole Eisenman (France → USA) and Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia → USA) follow a queer-feminist orientation and work on academic themes of globally-oriented migration. Their artistic approaches are visionary-figurative and satirical-narrative, addressing issues of gender, economy, and everyday life.
Their visual translations of global structures, migration, and urban development are typically expressed through oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, and collaborative work with print workshops. These multi-layered compositions—combining painting, drawing, and resin layers—serve as a symbolic blend and a medium of social critique, developed through humor, identity, and contemporaneity.
Their structural pictorial metaphors and geopolitical aesthetics have been embraced by the art market and high-end collectors. Renowned galleries and institutions handle their works, often with performance values in the hundreds of thousands of USD. Museum exhibitions and public debates around queer and feminist visibility are reflected in their work through a form of comedic realism. Their globalized status as artists contributes to a new aesthetic drawn from a densely layered socio-urban discourse.
Motivation:
Her artistic motivation lies in telling stories from both personal and collective everyday life, often queer-feminist in code. Her works evoke empathetic closeness and reflect on social structures. She questions power relations, gender, and consumerism through comically deconstructive imagery.
Art Market & Public Reception:
Eisenman is represented by Hauser & Wirth. She has exhibited internationally at the New Museum NY, Kunsthalle Zürich, and MCA Chicago.
Her works are part of major museum collections (MoMA, Whitney, SFMOMA, Tate) and have fetched prices in the millions at international auctions (e.g., Sotheby’s).
Ihre Motivation ist es Geschichten aus dem persönlichen und kollektiven Alltag zu erzählen, oft queer-feministisch kodiert. Sie schafft so eine empathische Nähe und reflektiert soziale Strukturen. Sie hinterfragt Machtverhältnisse, Gender und Konsum durch komisch-dekonstruierende Bildwelten.
Der Kunstmarkt und die Öffentlichkeit wird durch Hauser & Wirth repräsentiert. Weltweite Ausstellungen u. a. New Museum NY, Kunsthalle Zürich, MCA Chicago sind vertreten.
Museumswerke findet man im MOMA, Whitney, SFMOMA, Tate und werden bei internationalen Auktionen (Sotheby’s) für Mio USD gehandelt.
Julie Mehretu
Born in 1970 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Mehretu moved to the U.S. in 1977. She studied at Kalamazoo College (BFA 1992) and the Rhode Island School of Design (MFA 1997).
Since 1999, she has lived in New York. In 2017, Mehretu was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2021, she became a member of the National Academy of Design.
Vision and Themes:
Mehretu produces large-format, complex paintings that layer urban planning maps, transportation systems, and consumer culture as allegories of global dynamics. Her work addresses themes such as migration, war, globalization, and individual experience, contributing to an aesthetic form of narrative.
Methods:
She creates multi-layered compositions through a process of “drawing into painting,” combining resin and pigment, calligraphic gestures, and formal elements reminiscent of Kandinsky or Malevich. She also incorporates symbols from advertising, comics, and graffiti.
Content Focus:
Mehretu explores media-cultural identity within globalized systems. Her works transform urban maps into visual metaphors of societal forces.
Art Market & Public Reception:
Her work Untitled I (2001) reached $850,000 at auction in 2010, signaling a new level of collectible value. Mehretu has exhibited at DOCUMENTA 13, the Guggenheim, Deutsche Guggenheim, and the Istanbul Biennale.
Market Summary (2023–2024)
Nicole Eisenman:
Auct. turnover 2023: $915,728 USD, ranked #261 (Art Market Report 2024)Julie Mehretu:
Auct. turnover 2023: $4.8 million USD (Artprice)
Sales 2024: $9.6 million USD (Artscapy, based on 5 lots)
Top auction prices between $9–9.5 million USD at Sotheby’s Hong Kong and Art Basel Paris.
KB
Sources
Nicole Eisenman
Biography & Awards: MacArthur Foundation, de.wikipedia.org, thewomensstudio.net, macfound.org
Work process & printmaking: The New Yorker, Vogue, artincontext.org
Exhibitions: Hauser & Wirth, Whitechapel Gallery
Thematic analysis: Art in Context, The New Yorker
Julie Mehretu
Biography: thewomensstudio.net, en.wikipedia.org, whitechapelgallery.org
Education and career: de.wikipedia.org
Market data: artprice.com, artsy.net, culturetype.com, linkedin.com